“If you did not?” she echoed.
“If I did not… care deeply for the lady, I would not take such a risk again.”
His confession took a moment to sink in.
The word “corrupting” in his first story had implied he’d been young. The second could have happened at any time. But he was well into the first decade of his manhood, meaning he’d likely remained celibate foryears.
Her lips formed a silentoh.
“Are you satisfied?” he asked.
“You answered my question.” She swallowed roughly. “Thank you.”
“Is there anything else you’d like to ask me?”
She shook her head. “Perhaps we could proceed to the…”
“Rogering?” he suggested.
Her jaw dropped. “How many wordsarethere?”
His chuckle rumbled in the chest beneath her fingers.
“My ignorance is not a matter for funning!” She scowled.
“Not funning…marveling.” With loose fingers, he caressed her cheek. “I cannot believe my luck. And you should know that the look I believe you think is chiding…” He kissed her before moving to whisper in her ear. “Just makes me want to lick you all over again.”
Ah, yes.The licking. And the stripping. If he was going to keep saying things that made her dizzy, they really should sit down. She pulled back just far enough so he could see her face.
“In that case…” She leveled himthe look.
“The lady likes to play with fire.” He swept one arm behind her back and the other beneath her knees and lifted her onto the bed.
She’d been right. This bed was entirely too small for two.
However, she was already beyond caring. Her husband was at her side, leaning over her body, his lips locked on hers, his chest crushing her breasts. Heat radiated from his hip, his thighs, even his feet. He kissed her deeply, probingly, his tongue a mere prelude to a deeper invasion.
Heavy feeling in her breasts returned, and with it, a fire even further below. She was hot, achy and trembling. She wanted him urgently. But his kiss was slow and languid, and he savored each taste as if she were a pricey port after a long, tedious meal.
“You don’t have to remove the dress.”
“Oh no,” he laughed a wicked laugh against her lips. “You chose to don that gown, so now both of us are going to suffer through the torture of its removal.”
She whimpered. “I knew you were cruel.”
“You knew…and yet you deliberately set a spark in the pan.”
“I do love my firearms. What—” Her query ended in a groan.
One hand at her neck tickled her just beneath her ear, his other palmed her breast.
“That…” She shifted beneath him. “That makes the urgency worse.”
“Poor thing.” His radiant eyes lit with mischief. “You have mydeepestsympathy.”
“Lies,” she spat.
“I’m ready to apply myself to those buttons, now.”